What to eat?!

It was getting dark outside and I was not sure what I would have for supper. I was so hungry so coffee and mandazi was not an option. It was one of those days when I want something different. I also  wanted a meal I could whip up fast.

Light bulb moment. Why not try something with pasta.  So I went out to buy some onions and passed a smokie joint. There are so many in Juja. You pass one after every 10 steps or so. They probably out number M-Pesa agents!  I bought two smokies. By the time I got back to the house it was already 7:00 pm.

Here is how my experiment went down,

Ingredients.

·         A cup of pasta

·         Two smokies

·         One small onion

·         One medium sized green bell pepper (also capsicum or hoho)

·         A clove of garlic

·         One pepper

·         2 tsp tomato paste

·         A pinch of ginger, coriander, curry powder and beef masala each

·         Salt to taste

7:22 PM:      Put two cups of water to boil.

Chopped the onion, garlic and green bell pepper (hoho). I also sliced the pepper into half. Chopping it would cause the flavor to overwhelm me. For lovers of hot food however, chopping is the way to go.

Added pasta to salted boiling water.

Chop chop!

7:28 PM:    Sliced smokies into approximately ½ cm slices. Popped a few slices into my mouth. (Note to self - sharpen knife.)

                       

                  Strained the pasta. I did not let them get too soft since I would cook them further in the sauce.

What remained of the smokies.

7:36 PM:    Heated oil in a pan and added the ground spices. I was not quite sure how the spices would blend together. Got a good sniff and their aroma was great. The aroma of spices just seems to explode when heated. So do their flavors.

                      

                  Added the chopped onions, garlic and pepper and let them cook until the onions turned pale then added the hoho. I wanted the hoho to retain its crispness. I let them cook for around two minutes then added the smokies. Stirred the tomato paste in about half a cup of water and added this to the concoction (just wanted to use that word. He he).

                       

                   Added the pasta and let cook until tender.

7:48 PM:    Done! I added salt last after tasting so as not to over salt it.

                        

                  Ran quickly with a sample to my neighbor’s to get feedback. From the expression on his face, success!

Presto!

There! A quick and simple meal for ordinary me. I will definitely file this recipe for the next time I am not feeling up to cooking. I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as I did.

Improvised black background to capture the steam. Ha Ha!

Ciao!

Welcome Back!

When I started this blog over a year ago, I did not quite have an idea what I would do with it. The result: no articles.  Now I am posting my second article with the optimism that a week from now there will be another, and another the week after that and so on and so forth :-).

I am an ordinary young girl with dreams, hopes and passions. I face normal struggles and experience normal pleasures. I try to go the extra mile everyday, to experience life and not just while it away. To appreciate small and grand favors and fight winning and, sometimes losing battles. 

I love cooking. That is what sparked the desire to write again. So that I can document my cooking adventures and share them. Adventures include the slaying of dragons and the losing of limbs (gory, I know), so I will share both the successes and the failures. I will keep the mistakes far apart though ha-ha.

An attempt at egg rolls.

Breakfast for the ordinary girl.

I also love reading. I read lots of fiction and I love the classics. And, yes,  I consider Agatha Christie's novels as classic literature. But I am no expert. That is just me. I would also like to claim that I grasp Shakespeare, but that would be a lie. I so wish I did though. Art and classical music is on the list too.

This blog plays a part in the discovery of self and of this world. As I said, it will be an adventure.

A perfect start?

So I have been thinking of starting a blog for a while and I have finally gotten round to it. I actually got round to it a while back but instead of posting something, my perfectionist self has been doing research on how to make my blog the best it can be. So I have looked at all the templates and tried out most of the fonts, then I have thought of numerous topics to write about and witty phrases to include. As I was doing all this, time was whiling away (as it always does when I put on my Miss Perfect costume ) and then it hit me. My wanting to be perfect was preventing me from doing what I set out to do; write.
This is me in my Simply Me costume, trying to ignore the "wear me" pleas of the Miss Perfect costume. And just so that the next time am in my 'perfectionist' world I do not stay there too long, I compiled(read 'looked up with Google then copy pasted) a list of quotes on perfectionism and its imperfections:

•  A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.  ~John Henry Newman  (I totally agree)

• No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers.  ~Author Unknown  (Someone please tell me where to find mine.)

• Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.  ~William Safire  (Unfortunately, mine isn't)

• Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.  ~Henry van Dyke (Aaaw, totally agree.)

• Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.  ~Confucius, Analects  (Precisely!)

• Bachelors' wives and old maids' children are always perfect.  ~Nicholas Chamfort (Ohoho, I like this one)

• Even the best needles are not sharp at both ends.  ~Chinese Proverb

• The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four.  Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye.  ~Winston Churchill

And for the times when I feel that I need to do perfect things in the hope that that will make me a perfect Christian, I will think of these words:

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24) 

"I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?... Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?" (Galatians 3:2-3,5)

Those time that I feel like I need to redeem myself by my works:

"Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." (Romans 4:4-5). 

Of course, now and then, I will try to do stuff in the most perfect way and I think that is ok. It is when my desire for perfection takes over and leaves me out of control that I will need to remind myself that a world of perfect shapes would be rather dull (hehe). God knows me inside out. Trying to shut Him out as I try to get my ducks in a row(or a perfect circle) will only weigh me down. Instead, I should let Him in to help me grow in His Perfect will.